Melbourne Victory Youth coach Darren Davies only had praise for his boys after his side’s 8-1 thrashing of the table topping Central Coast Mariners.
The Mariners lead the second-placed Victory by six points before play, but the Melbournians cut the lead to three points with the enormous win where the Victory were 7-0 up at the half time break.
Speaking exclusively to Breathing Football after the win Davies only had positive thoughts for his side in blue and white.
“I thought the boys were fantastic today, particularly in the first-half and our structure was good, our shape was good and our pressure was good.
“From one to eleven that was probably the best 45 minutes that we’ve played this season and we had some end product at the end of it which resulted in the scoreline being at half time much in our favour.
“We were exceptionally good for 45 minutes today and that resulted in some excellent goals and some of the passing, practices and finishes were brilliant.”
Not many expected such a one sided scoreline in the top of the table clash and the Welshman was pleased how he’s side tested themselves against the league leaders.
“For me today it was good for us to test ourselves against the team who were top of the league and that’s what I said to the boys, so that was a really good test for us today and the boys came out and played exceptionally well and obviously that was a good win for us, but we’ll continue to analyse what we do as far as our shape and structures [are] concerned,” he said.
Luke O’Dea was on the scoresheet with a double in a fantastic performance proving exactly why the Young Socceroo was rewarded with his A-League debut against Wellington Phoenix last weekend.
“Yeah he was fantastic again today. Luke’s been great all season, in fairness, and he was good again today after having a little taster of the A-League two weeks ago,” Davies said of the 19-year-old.
O’Dea is the fourth Victory youngster to be given his A-League debut under Ange Postecoglou, after Andrew Nabbout, Chris Cristaldo and Nick Ansell, which Davies believes is impressive.
“That’s number four for this season which I think is impressive for this youth team, that’s obviously down to the boys’ hard work and obviously the boss (Postecoglou) has given them the chance.
“We’re going about our work in the youth team and the boss is recognizing that by giving youngsters a chance, which in fairness to him, that’s absolutely brilliant.”
Davies, an ex-Tottenham youngster, is relishing working under a coach of Postecoglou’s calibre.
“For myself I’m learning everyday and he’s the most successful coach in Australian history so it’s great for me to go in everyday and go in and work with somebody like that,” he said.
